Run on Sun

We think generating our own renewable energy is a good thing all round.

Ireland’s electricity is made up with about ¾ from fossil fuel sources (gas, coal, peat and oil), and ¼ from renewable sources, the majority of which comes from wind.

Despite lots of solar installations in places around the world at the same latitude as Ireland, there is so little solar energy generated here, it does not even figure in national statistics.

Ireland has the second best wind resource for energy in Europe, however in order to have a balanced system we need to use lots of sources of renewable energy. Solar energy and wind energy work well together, as although both provide intermittent power, they tend to be at their peak at opposite times of the day.

Yet here we don’t recognise solar energy as important, and as a result its does not make economic sense to have solar installations in Ireland. For example, if you have a solar panel on your roof generating renewable electricity all day, you cannot sell any of this energy, you must use it immediately or simply give it away for free. If there were solar panels installed on a school, the school can use the energy Monday to Friday while the students are there, but at weekends and holidays when the solar panels are working hard generating electricity all that electricity must be given away for free. Unlike wind farms which command a guaranteed minimum price for the electricity they generate, a solar farm can command no such minimum price.